Housing Vouchers and Residential Mobility

Abstract

Existing research suggests that tenant-based subsidies (housing vouchers) can help to deconcentrate poverty and improve the quality of life of low-income families. The Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program and the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration program have been shown to help families move to safer neighborhoods and ones with better public schools. The regular Section 8 program has been successful in facilitating moves to low-poverty areas in places like Alameda County, California, but public housing families have had difficulties in Chicago. Research on mixed-income communities has provided little evidence that social mixing has any direct positive impacts through social interaction and/or social networks. However, the lack of research on the long-term impacts on children, such as future improvements in their employment circumstances due to better educational attainment, makes it impossible to offer conclusive assessments on the connection between income mixing and social mobility.

The changing geography of male joblessness in urban America: 1970 to 2000

“…Since 1970, however, large clusters of these neighborhoods have formed in the central cities of these MSAs. Despite recent investments in programs intended to deconcentrate poverty through the construction of mixed-income housing (Clampet-Lundquist 2004;Joseph 2006;Popkin et al 2000;Zielenbach 2003) and dispersal programs (DeLuca and Rosenbaum 2003;Pashup et al 2005;Rosenbaum and Harris 2001;Varady and Walker 2003), expansive enclaves of low male employment covered large segments of the urban landscape in these MSAs by 2000.…”

“…For example, the redevelopment of public housing, much of it funded by HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere), has attempted to reduce the concentration of poverty through the construction of mixed-income housing in the most distressed neighborhoods (ClampetLundquist 2004;Joseph 2006;Popkin et al 2000;Zielenbach 2003). Similarly, dispersal programs such as the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program and the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program in Chicago have provided counseling and vouchers to poor residents of highpoverty neighborhoods to encourage them to relocate to nonpoor neighborhoods (DeLuca and Rosenbaum 2003;Pashup et al 2005;Rosenbaum and Harris 2001;Varady and Walker 2003).…”

Rigging the Rules of the Game: How Landlords Geographically Sort Low–Income Renters

“…However, there is also evidence that black voucher holders are moving to neighborhoods that are already disproportionately black (Sanbonmatsu et al 2011), where white flight, if it occurred in response to black newcomers, took place decades ago. 7 Past research has also focused on policy implementation and its role in constraining voucher holders' residential decision-making during the complex search process (Boyd et al 2010;DeLuca et al 2013;Edin et al 2012;Pashup et al 2005;Pendall 2000;Varady and Walker 2003). There are myriad obstacles to successful lease-up with a voucher, including perceived discrimination, tight rental markets, bureaucratic delays, limited experience with the program, household size, health issues (Pashup et al 2005), social networks (Boyd 2008), constrained time windows within which to find a new unit (DeLuca et al 2013), and problems with landlords (Boyd et al 2010;DeLuca et al 2013).…”

From vice to nice : A case study of Newport, Kentucky's HOPE VI program.

“…Varady and Walker (2003) argue that the use of housing vouchers (tenant-based subsidies) has helped deconcentrate poverty in some areas by improving the quality of life of former public housing residents by moving them into neighborhoods that have higher mobility, better schools, and safer neighborhoods. However, in large urban areas like Chicago, recipients who used vouchers lived in neighborhoods with less drugs and crime and lower poverty rates than their old public housing (Varady & Walker, 2003).…”

“…Also, residents relocating to deconcentrated minority areas have experienced difficulty in making the transition to their new housing, either by adjusting to a new housing environment, overcoming fears of discrimination in predominantly white areas, the lack of affordable housing, the lack of public transportation in the suburban areas, and landlords unwilling to accept vouchers (Varady & Walker, 2003;Popkin, 1999;.…”